The object of the present invention is to improve the devices described in French patent application number FR-A-2 582 398 in the name of the present Applicant, said devices being of the type comprising an elongate housing made of thermally and electrically conductive material receiving a bimetallic strip constituting an alarm contact fixed to the end of the housing, and a thermoresistive element for measuring temperature and disposed laterally relative to the bimetallic strip.
The term "thermoresistive element" is used herein to designate any device whose resistance varies as a function of temperature in a manner suitable for measuring temperature. The coefficient relating resistance to temperature may be positive or negative.
More precisely, the object of the present invention is firstly to facilitate assembly of such devices and secondly to prevent any unwanted thermal interaction between the thermoresistive element and the bimetallic strip. The Applicant has observed that in some configurations the current flowing in the bimetallic strip may heat the thermoresistive element by means of the Joule effect, thereby distorting the temperature measurements to be performed, or that the detection current passing through the thermoresistive element could offset the switching point of the bimetallic strip, again by the Joule effect.